Spiritual DNA: 16 Essential Doctrines of the Christian Faith
This Sunday at The River, we'll be talking about the Church of the Nazarene's Article of Faith #9, "Justification, Regeneration, and Adoption". Wow, sounds exciting, huh? :-) Actually, it is exciting. In fact, it's pretty darned...
A-W-E-S-O-M-E-!
Here's the texts we'll focus on:Galatians 2:16-21, John 3:1-8, and Galatians 4:4-7 (THE MESSAGE).
So I ask you... how can three multi-syllabic, rather academic sounding words possibly be exciting? Well, 'cause they represent the most awesome... most divine act of grace imaginable in the midst of a dying and broken world. If and when we humans accept the hard, painful truth... and finally admit that we are utterly and completely screwed up, without any resources to fix our screwed-upness (not a biblical word, but I like it nonetheless!)... AND when we cry out to God in our desperate state seeking the help that only the Author of Life could (and does) provide to everyone who comes to Him (and believes in His extraordinary power and love demonstrated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ)... then in one broad, miraculous, and simultaneous sweep... God forgives our sins, restores our humanity to it's original (Garden-like) state, and breathes this awesome, eternal truth into our hearts: We are His (and His alone). We are not our own any longer... nor are we in Satan's grip... we are no longer lost... no longer wanderers in the darkness.
Nope... when this awesome salvific, beautiful and eternal transaction occurs in the human heart... all hell breaks loose (well, to be more specific, all HEAVEN breaks loose!), and the Lord ordains that we are fully, completely, and holistically adopted into the family of God. Yahweh becomes Abba... the Lord becomes our Daddy, and calls us His own.
God knows (and so do we) that we don't deserve it... we far too often abuse it... we have such a difficult time believing it (and walking it)... and so many of us utterly deny it's power... but nevertheless: when we simply come to the end of ourselves and genuinely cry out to God for help... by sheer grace he forgives us, re-makes us, and thoroughly embraces us. Man, if that ain't good news, then I don't know what is!!!
Ya, I know we are extremely complicated beings... and life on this rock hands us humans such an array of options and ideas and opinions and agendas and religions... but still, I gotta wonder... Why on earth would anyone want to reject the kind of offer described above? I dunno... perhaps (at least some of the time) it's because His children wrap the priceless gift in butt-ugly coverings of religiousity and (human) judgment, laziness and arrogance, rather than in the divine love of Christ so eloquently revealed to us in Scripture? Hmmm... just wonderin...
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteIt is awesome no doubt, but religion/church all by itself can't take us there...the Word is so powerful but it's so critical that we find ways to experience God, experience Jesus...that is not a spectator sport which is what I think is really the challenging thing so often with christians...we can't experience God/Jesus by watching from the sidelines, Jesus calls us in to play the game...if we don't jump in with Jesus and play in his game of loving those around us, we remain spectators, not participants. Following Jesus is not a spectator sport. You can't just read the Word, you've got to live it.
Paul